Firstly, I would like to thank my neighbour who lent me their new Xperia Z2, for a temporary swap for my Samsung Galaxy S5. I had a day with the Z2, at the end of which my neighbour was so relived to get back his phone and return my S5. And in one day, I can fully understand why.

So, for me the differences between the S5 and Z2 are huge. The Z2 is speedy to use, no lag like the S5. Great camera that does need software optimisations still, but its starting base is so much better than the Z1 and Z1 Compact. I used the Z2 is auto mode and also switched to manual to see what more I could tweak out of the camera shots. The photos were generally all very impressive and if you were to ask which phone had the best camera the S5 or Z2, it really is a close call. But my winner is the S5 for more natural looking shots, a great HDR mode and 16mp shots as standard versus the 8mp Sony Z2. But it really is a close call, and at times the Z2 took the better shot.

The industrial design of the Z2 is superb, much nicer than the S5. But a fingerprint magnet. The screen was gorgeous, but weirdly I preferred the S5 screen. The Z2 has a much better loudspeaker, in fact it has stereo front facing speakers. Also whilst the S5 is water and dust resistant, the Z2 is water and dust “proof”.

Sony’s software skin is gorgeous on the Z2 and there is a lot to like when using this phone. It makes me feel engaged and happy to use it. The S5 inflicts no emotion whatsoever although it is technically superior and ultimately that wins the day for me.

I really enjoyed using the Z2, and I just cannot get over how much faster it is to use the the lag fest Samsung S5. In reality, if you did not have another phone to compare the S5 to, it is fine but at times it seems to lag too much. Maybe that’s why Sony fitted 3gb of ram, whereas Samsung only has 2gb in the S5!